The use of wind energy to provide power is a practice which dates back several hundred years. One of the earliest attempts to harness the force of winds resulted in the production of windmills. In the more recent energy conservation minded times, various efforts have been expended in attempting to develop more efficient wind transducers which are more energy efficient and produce more usable energy.
Various wind turbine devices have been proposed such as, for example, stationary tornado-type wind turbines for converting wind energy into electrical power. Additionally, stationary Venturi structures have been utilized for driving a radial bladed impeller for driving a shaft connected to an electric generator. The extraction of energy from wind at the surface of the earth is limited by the velocity of the wind at the earth's surface.
A need has thus arisen for an improved wind energy conversion device which is lightweight, cost effective and energy efficient in the conversion process, and which is operable at high altitudes where wind velocity is stronger and more constant than at the earth's surface.